LEVI STRAUSS: A BIOGRAPHY
© 2014 Lynn Downey, Historian
Levi Strauss, the inventor of the quintessential American garment — the blue jean
— was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria on February 26, 1829 to Hirsch Strauss and
his second wife, Rebecca Haas Strauss. Levi — named "Loeb" at birth — had three
older brothers and three older sisters, but his sister Fanny (born Vogele) was the
only other child of his mother, Rebecca